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Availibility 4th Developer Meeting Date

Real name

2015-05-28

2015-05-29

Mihai Moldovan

Mike Gabriel

Stefan Baur

2

2

Raw Chat Log

14:06 < Mihai> welcome to the fourth X2Go developer's meeting. users are free to chime in as well, but we will be discussing development and organizational issues only. please make sure to aquire an exclusive lock on talking and try not to interrupt the current writer.
14:07 < Mihai> a (rather small) list of topics have been published on the wiki page of this meeting - http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/2015-04:day-2015-05-28 - but the list is by no means complete. please add own points as you see fit.
14:07 < Mihai> the channel will be logged at least until we conclude the session
14:08 -!- Stefan has joined #x2go
14:10 < Mihai> as it turns out, I cannot provide many details on the first mysterious point I added to the list. work on that has not been done yet. I'll probably bring it up on the next meeting.
14:11 < Mihai> other than that, I have recently released X2Go Client 4.0.4.0. outstanding releases are x2gobroker and nx-libs.
14:11 < Mihai> Mike#1 mentioned some problems with nx-libs-lite (on the 3.5.0.x branch)
14:11 < Mihai> I'd like to know more about that
14:12 < Mike#1> I looked at the tarball roller script for nx-libs-lite.
14:12 < Mike#1> I wanted to upload a new upstream release of nx-libs-to Debian and realized that the 3.5.0.31 contains several files that should not be there.
14:12 < Mike#1> debian/**
14:13 < Mike#1> .pc/**
14:13 < Mike#1> nx-libs.spec
14:13 < Mike#1> etc.
14:13 < Mike#1> also I added support to roll-tarball.sh to build HEAD of the current branch.
14:13 < Mike#1> then, 1234-patchname.suffix patches were not supported.
14:13 < Mike#1> only 1234_patchname.suffix.
14:14 < Mike#1> then, the main COPYING file is some license mixup copied from nxcomp/LICENSE.
14:14 < Mike#1> I replaced that by a GPL-2 license, because that is the major license on most of the files anyway.
14:14 < Mike#1> and the most restrictive license.
14:14 < Mike#1> etc.etc.
14:17 < Mihai> anyway, regarding roll-tarball.sh: is this a regression I introduced, or a general problem that has been around for some time now?
14:19 < Mike#1> both, I guess.
14:19 < Mike#1> the roll-tarball.sh script on 3.6.x and 3.5.0.x are really different
14:19 < Mike#1> I am currently testing both against each's branch
14:20 < Mihai> ok
14:21 < Mike#1> note, that I also have the DXPC license doc patch in my hands at the moment.
14:22 < Mihai> so probably a good thing I didn't release a new version yet, do you have an ETA? I don't want to interfere when you're working on it anyway and duplicate work
14:22 < Mike#1> btw. the plan is to release 3.6.x in Octobre 2015.
14:22 < Mike#1> yeah. Doing it now. Having a meeting at 15:30h.
14:23 < Mike#1> so, sometime later today...
14:23 < Mihai> I'm not available through the weekend... including very restrictedly tomorrow
14:24 < Mihai> don't mind if it's taking longer
14:24 < Mike#1> ok.
14:25 < Mike#1> Questions? Comments?
14:25 < Mihai> thanks a lot for bringing the problem up
14:27 < Mihai> looking forward to 3.6.x, I believe there have been some changes regarding the roadmap and X2Go. we want to switch to 3.6.x earlier than planned and make incompatible changes to 3.7.x, right?
14:28 < Mike#1> That is the plan for TheQVD and for Arctica, yes.
14:28 < Stefan> Mike#1: Do you have a snail-mail contact address for Mr. DXPC yet?
14:28 < Mike#1> For X2Go, I recommend the same.
14:28 < Mike#1> The only invasive change in 3.6.x is the Xinerama work provided by Ulrich.
14:28 < Mike#1> If it gets ready by Octobre.
14:29 < Mihai> uh and the BIGREQUESTS thing
14:29 < Mike#1> BIGREQUESTS -> 3.7.x.
14:29 < Mihai> not really invasive, but breaking something
14:29 < Mike#1> Stefan: the mail contacts I have are all mentioned in #784565 (DebBTS).
14:29 < Mihai> ah, yes, you were talking about 3.6.x-only
14:30 < Mike#1> Brian Pane (the original author) never got back to me.
14:30 < Mike#1> Neither did Gian Filippo Pinzari from NoMachine
14:30 < Stefan> Mike#1: no, not e-mail, snail-mail.
14:31 < Mike#1> Stefan: ah... No.
14:31 < Stefan> Mike#1: for the one guy that we did get a reply from
14:31 < Mike#1> We did get reply from two guys.
14:31 < Mike#1> Zach Volner and Kevin Vigor (current maintainer, inactive)
14:32 < Mihai> what do you need their postal addresses for?
14:32 < Stefan> Mike#1: the current maintainer was the one I was asking about
14:32 < Stefan> Mihai: To send him a package of blue pills (no, not viagra) maybe? ;)
14:33 < Mihai> ah, sure, why not
14:35 < Mike#1> Stefan: I don't have the snail-mail address of Kevin, sorry.
14:36 < Heinz> Alex: there was no known contact before - as far as I know...
14:36 < Heinz> ?
14:36 < Alex> nope
14:38 < Mike#1> Ok. X2Go Broker maintainer.
14:39 < Mike#1> Heinz mentioned interest in taking over maintenance for the broker, right?
14:39 < Mike#1> Is that still up-to-date?
14:39 < Mihai> Stefan: I guess you can ask him nicely, after all he responded to x2go-dev
14:44 < Stefan> And if that's still up-to-date, I'm curious how that will work out regarding Heinz's restrictions coming from his main job.
14:44 * Mike#1 needs to leave in 15min...
14:45 < Mike#1> We should get more of a flow into this meeting.
14:45 < Mihai> I've been waiting for him to answer...
14:45 < Mike#1> Heinz: ?
14:45 * Stefan looks for his electric cattle prod
14:46 < Mihai> it's written in python and I don't have any use case or even setup for the broker, so I'm not keen or even comfortable taking maintainership for it.
14:46 < Heinz> Mike#1: at the moment, there are not enough ressources that I can spend on the borker
14:46 < Heinz> broker
14:47 < Stefan> <off-record comment><snark>borker, indeed.</snark></off-record comment>
14:47 < Mike#1> Heinz: ok. So I will advertise it in Essen to the people there, then. Ok?
14:47 < Heinz> Mihai: my staffmember is trained in python and there is a discussion up and running - but at the moment he is on vacation (child-time)
14:48 < Heinz> Mike#1: I rely on his knowledge and some other decissions which will not be made before august
14:49 < Mihai> I guess we should still ask around. just in case someone actually *is* willing to take over.
14:49 < Stefan> Heinz: Could your staff member join us virtually, by means of skype, appear.in, or whatever, at the Gathering?
14:49 < Heinz> Mike#1: please do so, but keep in mind that this is a criticy component to the whole project...
14:50 < Mike#1> Heinz: ok.
14:50 * Mike#1 agrees with Mihai.
14:50 < Heinz> Stefan: I'll need to ask him!
14:51 < Stefan> Heinz: please do.
14:51 < Heinz> [**----------] in progress (don't expect his answer in the next minutes - he's on vacation)
14:51 < Mihai> okay... otherwise, my list is running empty
14:52 < Mihai> Fedora 22 has been released recently, so this will require a few changes to the buildscripts and jenkins config I have on my todo list, but nothing too special
14:52 < Mihai> maybe one point: there is a chance that fedora removed the python binary with FC22
14:53 < Mike#1> in favour of python2 and python3 binary?
14:53 < Mihai> if they didn't, we're good - if they did, we're screwed, because stuff like the broker depends on a pure "python" command
14:53 < Mihai> yes
14:53 < Mike#1> yeah, that can be easily fixed.
14:53 < Mihai> what do our python packages expect?
14:53 < Mihai> python2 or python3?
14:53 < Mihai> do they work with either?
14:53 < Mike#1> Everything is python2.
14:54 < Mike#1> So, they need to be ported to python3 finally.
14:54 < Mihai> okay, so whenever I hit a problem, I'll hardcode python2 for now
14:55 < Mike#1> or file a bug...
14:55 < Mike#1> against x2gobroker package.
14:55 < Stefan> maybe do both? ;)
14:55 < Mihai> well I need to change "python" to either anyway
14:56 < Mihai> I know the current rawhide builds are failing for this specific reasons, will see how FC22 behaves. it might not be a problem for FC22, but I need to evaluate that
14:57 < Mihai> and my last point, the RasPi2 stuff, is still TBD
14:58 < Mihai> I have it running off an NFS root and it's been idling for a week, so it looks like it's stable enough at least
14:58 < Stefan> Regarding the RasPi2 stuff - we will be moving that to Switzerland in the near future, where we have been offered free hosting. We'll work out the details in a face-to-face meeting with the hosting provider on June 9th.
14:59 < Mihai> Stefan: I don't like that idea too much. we will not have hands-on access to it.
15:00 < Mihai> and it'll also require extra HW, unless they provide a decently sized NFS share
15:00 < Stefan> Mihai: You don't have hands-on access to japsand and all the others, either.
15:01 < Stefan> Mihai: We get at least one RasPi2 and one full-fledged server.
15:01 < Mihai> Stefan: yes, but japsand has a bootable recovery system and a reboot facility
15:01 < Mihai> to fix raspberry pi boot issues, you have to take out the SD card
15:01 < Stefan> Mihai: Maybe Heinz can explain how his RasPi hoster handles that.
15:02 < Mihai> especially if they are kernel- or cmdline-related
15:02 < Heinz> Stefan: the whole traffic for backups is at the moment "for free" and incridible fast for the internal network of "hetzner" - the traffic towards suisse needs to be paid
15:03 < Stefan> Heinz: Well, I'd assume you'd use rsync/rsnapshot, only transferring deltas
15:03 < Heinz> Stefan: there is a power switch web console... it works now (finally)
15:04 < Mihai> Heinz: but boot issues will leave the device in a broken state until someone can put their hands on it
15:04 < Heinz> Stefan: please keep in miend that the situation may change (if the sponsoring is cut off) - there needs to be a structured way back
15:04 < Heinz> but what I really like would be to have our test machines there including public testing
15:05 < Heinz> because the suisse privacy protcting laws would make demo systems a lot of easier
15:05 < Stefan> Heinz: I'm not saying you should cease making Hetzner-internal backups. I'm just voting for an additional, external one.
15:06 < Heinz> Mihai: YES - I was offline for one week as you remember - there is not only gold regarding remote hosting
15:06 < Heinz> Stefan: additional ressources are great!!!
15:06 < Mike#1> Mihai: 3.5.0.x changes have been pushed. Please check.
15:06 < Mihai> Heinz: even if someone *is* online, neither of one has telekinetic capabilities to carry out hands-on support over the internet
15:07 < Mihai> Mike#1: already doing
15:07 < Heinz> Stefan: please ask the sponsor about offering public demo instances
15:07 < Mike#1> For 3.6.x I created a branch and a PR (for myself). https://github.com/ArcticaProject/nx-libs/pull/44
15:07 < Stefan> Heinz: I strongly doubt anyone will want to run a public demo instance with free-for-all access and anonymous users.
15:07 * Mike#1 is running to the next meeting.
15:08 < Mike#1> _o/
15:08 < Heinz> Mike#1: bye!
15:08 < Mike#1> bye
15:08 < Stefan> Heinz: such a system would be an invitation for warez and (kiddie)porn trade
15:08 < Mihai> bye
15:08 < Stefan> bye Mike#1
15:08 < Mihai> Stefan: teamviewer does just that
15:08 < Stefan> Mihai: They do? Where?
15:09 < Mihai> Stefan: check their website, they have a demo feature
15:09 < Heinz> teamviewer has been bought...
15:09 < Mihai> at least they did
15:11 < Mihai> looks like they removed the demo machines/feature
15:12 < Mihai> I can distinctly remember having used this a year or two ago
15:13 < Heinz> sry - need to leave in 2 minutes - I'll keep this window open...
15:14 < Alex> I need 2 go too. (bye)
15:14 < Mihai> okay, let's conclude the meeting then
15:14 < Heinz> we should remember the people towards a) X2Go Gathering, b) Next Meetinmg
15:14 < Mihai> thank you for participating and your valuable input
15:15 < Heinz> Mihai: thank you for hosting this session!
15:15 < Alex> (y)
15:15 -!- Alex has quit
15:15 < Stefan> NOTICE: X2Go's annual community event, "X2Go: The Gathering 2015" will take place at Linuxhotel, Essen, Germany, from 2015-06-19 to 2015-06-21. All beds are booked out, but you can still join us if you bring a sleeping bag or don't need a place to stay.